How to Use Yelp to Improve Your Local Search Rank

No doubt you’ve heard that word of mouth is the best marketing strategy but lately, almost 80% of consumers trust online reviews as if they were a recommendation from a trusted friend.

Over the years, more people turn to them to get the final word on whether they can trust the business or not.

For local businesses, this fact is even more important – moreover, about 50% of mobile searches are local.

Make sense; When you’re out and about and you need to find a place nearby, you’ll turn on your phone and then assess where to go with its reviews.

So how can you make that work for you? One of the answers is to incorporate Yelp into your SEO strategy. How to Use Yelp to Improve Your Local Search Rank

Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered.

Here’s how to think like a local SEO company when it comes to yelp.

Optimize Your Site For Yelp
Recently, Yelp launched a new penalty targeting websites that are not mobile-friendly.

If you want to pay attention to Yelp, you must make sure that your website is optimized for mobile search and Yelp.

Here are some tips:

No pop-ups – Make sure there are no pop ups that include content on your main page
The ad folds above – Do not get your clients looking for content
Interstitials – If your site shows interstitials that your users should refuse to go to the main page, Yelp will punish you.
Doing these things will make your site more user-friendly and keep you in good Yelp’s grace. How to Use Yelp to Improve Your Local Search Rank

Do not Request Reviews
Many good, and good reviews help your site rank; any local SEO company can tell you that.

The important thing to remember when getting a review on Yelp is to grow your review organically.

Believe it or not, Yelp will punish you if they suspect you are trying to improve your review.

For example, reviewers determine review ratings.

If the reviewer’s account is new and they barely review anything, Yelp will suspect it as a dummy account and demotivate you.

Same thing if a bunch of reviews come in at the same time.

If you send bulk emails to your subscribers to send reviews and all of a sudden, Yelp gets a ton of them at once, your views will be penalized.

Growing the reviews organically How to Use Yelp to Improve Your Local Search Rank
So how can you improve your SEO ranking by yelp organically?

A good local SEO company trick is to make sure customers know that you are using Yelp.